The invention generally relates to managing and projecting business costs, and, more particularly, relates to a system and method for analyzing structured component specifications and rolling up pricing estimates based on predetermined and available criteria.
With the trend toward globalization and outsourcing of parts and components, companies require in-depth analysis of all levels of supply. Systems for estimating supply costs are well known in the industry, but few are robust enough to handle the complexity of modern business relationships. For example, many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) instigate competition among its suppliers, allowing them to bid on different components and assemblies. Such a business scenario promotes requests for quotes (RFQs) to suppliers, related offers, counter-offers, negotiations, and multitudes of related transactions. Many complex relationships result from different business structures, which are difficult to manage and monitor. Discounts, whether quantity, promotional or other discounts, rebates, etc., are desired by end users of products, and make it even more difficult to monitor supply costs. To complicate matters further, markets change, costs change and other business factors change over time. It is important for a business to try to monitor these changing costs as well as the impacts of such changes on a business.
Conventional applications are available that present cost information in a tabular form. Such applications are unable to address changing cost information in a business environment. Therefore, it would be useful to provide a method and system configured to better manage and project business costs. As will be evident by the description below, the invention accomplishes this in an elegant manner.